Various brazing alloys have been used in the orthodontic and dental field to join together a variety of members including orthodontic and dental appliances. It is typically desirable for such alloys to exhibit excellent corrosion resistance and bonding strength especially for orthodontic and dental use. One group of alloys known to be useful to braze together orthodontic appliances have compositions with very high gold contents. One such alloy contains 82% by weight gold and 18% by weight nickel. Satisfactory results are obtained when this specific alloy is used to braze together orthodontic brackets and pads. However, with its high gold content, this alloy and other high gold content alloys are very expensive. In addition, many orthodontic appliances, including brackets and pads, are made of stainless steel. For most of the high gold content brazing alloys used to join such appliances, the brazing joint has a noticeably different color than the stainless steel appliances. Aesthetically, this color difference is not desirable.
Another group of alloys known to be useful to braze together orthodontic appliances have compositions with very high silver content and virtually no gold. Examples of such silver based alloy compositions, by weight percent, are as follows: 72% silver (Ag) and 28% copper (Cu); 54% silver (Ag), 25% palladium (Pd) and 21% copper (Cu); and 54% silver (Ag), 25% palladium (Pd), 2% zinc (Zn), 16% copper (Cu) and 3% antimony (Sb). Because of the low gold content, these alloys are relatively inexpensive. However, these very high silver content brazing alloys tend to tarnish and discolor. This tarnishing also results in an undesirable color difference between the brazing joint and stainless steel orthodontic appliances.